A conventional apparatus of this type, as disclosed by Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 159299/80, entitled "A Travelling Position Display Apparatus for Vehicles" comprises a transparent film printed with a road map provided on the front panel of a fluorescent display tube of dot matrix type, means for determining a planar coordinate by accumulatively computing the running distance in every direction from a starting point on the basis of detection signals produced from a running distance sensor and a direction sensor, and means for indicating the present running position of the vehicle on the road map by the display operation of the fluorescent display tube, thereby informing the driver of the present running position of the vehicle in an easier manner.
The disadvantage of this conventional apparatus using a transparent film printed with a road map is that in the case where a road not included in the road map is covered, which, for example, is very useful road such as a short cut, the driver who desires the vehicle to run along the same route on a later day is unable to identify the road which is not indicated on the road map.
The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned disadvantage of the conventional apparatuses and an object thereof is to provide a vehicle navigator comprising display means for displaying the running position of the vehicle additionally on a road map, command means for generating, by external operation, a timing command for storing the running track covered by the vehicle and not included in the road map of the display means, and control means for storing the running track in response to the timing command from the command means and additionally displaying the stored running track at the next time of display of the road map of the running region, thereby storing the running track covered along the roads not indicated on the road map and additionally displaying the particular running track on the road map.
According to the present invention, there is provided a vehicle navigator in which the running track of a road not included in a road map is stored and is additionally displayed on the road map on the next occasion, so that at the time of next coverage of the same region, the road along the running track is easily pin-pointed.
Other objects and features of this invention will be apparent from the following description with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: